Immortal
Immortals are a species of supernatural beings that are truly immortal and cannot be killed by any weapon. The term Immortal is used to describe the species which Silas and Amara, the very first immortal beings in history, were transformed into when they consumed the immortality elixir created by the witch Qetsiyah. Immortals can be considered as the template for vampires. However, Immortals differ from original and regular vampires in many different ways, and vice versa, the biggest of those differences being that they are not undead like vampires. History Ancient History Over 2,000 years ago in Ancient Greece, a young and powerful warlock named Silas desired immortality, the ability to live forever without ever aging or dying. Silas was engaged to be married to another powerful witch named Qetsiyah. Silas told her that he wanted to be with her forever, and never wanted to be parted from her, even by death. Silas asked her to help him create the Elixir of Immortality, also known as The Immortality Spell. Silas and Qetsiyah created the elixir of immortality together and decided to consume it during their wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, Qetsiyah realized that the elixir of immortality had already been consumed, due to the fact that nature was dying around her. She discovered that Silas did not want to create the elixir of immortality for her, but rather, for another woman whom Silas was truly in love with, Qetsiyah's handmaiden, Amara. Qetsiyah became enraged, jealous and wanted instant revenge. Therefore, she created a Cure for immortality. She confronted and desiccated Amara first. Afterwards, she lured Silas to a remote island, desiccated Silas, and buried him in darkness along with the cure deep underground in darkness. Qetsiyah then created The Other Side, a limbo or purgatory meant for the souls of dead supernatural beings and she bound it to the desiccated Amara, using her as a physical anchor between the living and the dead. Qetsiyah's main goal was for Silas to take the cure for immortality, die a mortal death (meaning become a warlock again), then be reunited with Qetsiyah on the Other Side for eternity with the intention of Silas never being able to reunite with Amara. Silas knew this was Qetsiyah's intention and as a result, he resisted the cure for over two thousand years, hoping that someday he would be freed so he could destroy the Other Side, take the cure, and then die to reunite with Amara. Legacy Since the burial of Silas and petrification of Amara, the immortality spell has been known to be replicated twice; once in the creation of what came to be known as the Original Vampires, and then in the remaking of Alaric Saltzman. Both these times imperfect variants of immortals were created that had had weaknesses that could lead to their demise. Original vampires could be killed by the White Oak Stake, and Alaric died because his life-force was tied with Elena's. Original vampires could turn humans into vampires using their blood but they would not be as strong and immune to nature's wrath as the Originals - they could be killed by far more methods than Originals themselves. The Release of Silas To get the cure, which was in Silas' fossilized hands, Bonnie stated that they had to wake him up in order to retrieve the cure from his hands. Later Katherine used Jeremy to feed Silas. Silas drained Jeremy of his blood. After he fed, Silas released himself from his cave. Silas was now free to initialize his ultimate plan to complete the Expression Triangle, and use Bonnie to destroy The Other Side, which would resurrect every dead supernatural being. Once it was destroyed, he could take the cure and die, so he could pass on to the afterlife and be reunited with his true love, Amara. Silas did not care about the damage that would be caused or done to the earth from all of the resurrected supernatural beings roaming around, causing danger and wreaking havoc. After Bonnie died, and Elena shoved the cure down Katherine' throat, Silas' plan was ruined. He roams the earth freely, waiting to terrorize it, and everyone on it as revenge. The End of the Immortals Silas drank the cure which was in Katherine's system at this stage and became mortal. He later discovered that he had been deceived by Qetsiyah regarding Amara's death. Qetsiyah desiccated her and bound her to the Other Side, so it would prevail eternally as Amara is truly immortal and indestructible. Amara stabbed Silas and drank his blood rendering herself mortal as well. Silas tries to cut Amara's throat after she said she wanted to die, but Stefan interrupts him and kills Silas. After Silas was killed by being stabbed in the chest, Amara took the same knife that killed Silas and stabbed herself, which resulted in Amara's death. As a result of Silas and Amara dying, Amara has passed onto the metaphysical plane or the afterlife where she will find eternal peace. Unfortunately for Silas, he passed onto the Other Side (the supernatural purgatory for dead supernatural beings and creatures). This means that Silas and Amara are separated from each other for eternity. Silas attempted to resurrect himself with the Travelers resurrection spell, to come back to life before the Other Side was destroyed, and then find peace with the Other Side gone, but was sucked into oblivion before he could be resurrected. Silas and Amara are now truly separated for all eternity. Nature Immortals appear to have a physical form completely identical to that of a human and, unlike vampires, do not have another form in addition to their human aspects. Immortals, like Vampires, require blood to live and maintain their supernatural abilities. However, they have no fangs. When Silas had to feed he cut his victims with a knife (primarily on the wrists) in order for him to obtain their blood and Amara had to use a large glass shard to cut Silas' throat so she could drink the cure from his blood. Powers and Abilities Immortals possess supernatural physical as well as psychic abilities. Although they are the first vampiric lifeforms to exist, their physical abilities e.g. their strength and speed etc. are noticeably inferior to that of vampires created from Esther's ritual, and do not increase over time. Their psychic powers grow stronger with human blood and by simply honing them over time. *'Immortality '- The act of not aging, or succumbing to any human illnesses. Unlike all other known immortals, including vampires and the Original Vampires, Immortals are truly and unconditionally immortal and can't be killed by any weapon. * Super Durability - Immortals can take a great amount of damage. *'Accelerated Healing Factor '- As they have unconditional immortality, Immortals heal despite any level of damage on their bodies. They can snap their finger bones back into place after being broken, and have been seen to fully recover from gunshots, stab wounds, snapped necks, and torso impalement. A steady diet of blood allows for an even faster healing factor. *'Advanced Immunity '- Being truly and unconditionally immortal, Immortals are immune to all known weaknesses of regular Vampires. They're immune to wooden weapons, sunlight, vervain, and werewolf bites and are able to walk freely in a home without being invited first. It is unknown if decapitation or heart extraction would have had any effect on them, although it is highly unlikely as their bodies are supposedly completely indestructible. * Psychic Powers '''- Immortals possess various psychic abilities. Only members of The Five are immune to all of Silas' mental powers, as they were spelled to be immune from mind control against all Vampires. **Illusions '- Possibly their most threatening ability, Immortals have the power to create powerful illusions. They are able to use these illusions on anyone they desire no matter how powerful. The ability to cause illusions also allows a form of shapeshifting, since they can cause beings to believe that they are seeing the Immortal in the form of another. They can be used on multiple people in multiple locations simultaneously. They can keep themselves at a physically safe distance while casting illusions. The illusions have been proven sufficient against many vampires capable of brute force. Silas for example once made these illusions convincing enough to actually make an Original like Klaus believe that he's on the verge of death after Silas made him perceive himself getting stabbed in the back with the indestructible White Oak Stake, and it wasn't until he experienced great emotional upheaval with Caroline Forbes that Klaus was able to break himself free from it. **'Voice Mimicry '- When they use their illusions to appear as someone else, Immortals are able to change their voice to whatever they want, using their voice in addition to their appearance. **'Telepathy '- Immortals have the ability to read the thoughts and memories of another person. However, there seems to be a limit to how fast they can fully read someone's mind, as Silas failed to realize that Damon was on to him until it was too late. **'Dream Manipulation' - Immortals can control dreams and subconscious. Immortals can produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares or lucid dreaming. **'Psychic Pain Infliction '- Similar to witches, with their illusions and telepathic powers, Immortals are able to inflict illusion psychic pain on their victims as shown when Silas attacked Klaus and Caroline. By extension of this power, Silas made Bonnie think she was suffocating to death, as a psychic illusion to her body. **'Mind Compulsion' - Immortals have the ability to control minds, plague people's dreams, and erase humans and other supernatural being's memories, even without eye contact, and even to extremely powerful witches such as Qetsiyah, even while they are on vervain. They are even able to control entire crowds and from a distance with relative ease. After Silas died, it appeared as none of the humans he compelled had remembered him revealing that as another unique ability to immortals as opposed to when a vampire dies or an original is daggered and the person(s) compulsion is undone. * 'Enhanced Strength '- As a consequence of unconditional immortality, Immortals have greater than average human strength that makes them stronger than most humans, with strength enhanced to being about equal to that of the hunters of the Brotherhood of the Five. Silas broke Jeremy Gilbert's neck with one hand effortlessly, even while in a desiccated state. However, their strength is not on par with that of regular vampires, as the latter grow stronger with age unlike Immortals. *'Enhanced Reflexes' - Immortals possess enhanced reflexes which allows them to unconsciously react faster than Humans to stimulus. *'Enhanced Senses '- Immortals have keen senses of hearing, sight and smell that exceed those of humans, but are greatly inferior to that of regular Vampires. Weaknesses Despite being truly immortal and being incredibly powerful in their own right, Immortals have some weaknesses; *'Desiccation '- Immortals who abstain from blood for extended amounts of time will eventually desiccate into mummification. * 'Magic' - Immortals are susceptible to the powers of witchcraft. Qetsiyah was able to bury and immobilize Silas in a tomb while Bonnie Bennett had temporarily petrified him. Qetsiyah also calcified Amara and anchored her to The Other Side. In addition, the Hunter's Curse can affect an Immortal although the effect will only be temporary. *'Doppelgängers''' - Silas and Amara's biggest weaknesses. As Doppelgänger were created to balance the existence of Immortals within nature, they can be used to invoke linking spells that bind them to other doppelgänger, both previous and next. And that includes the Immortals from which nature modeled the doppelgänger after. If a powerful Witch is able to link an Immortal with their respective doppelgänger, it will take away their mental abilities, leaving them practically powerless. *'Broken Neck' - Breaking an Immortal's neck will result in unconsciousness for said Immortal. *'Physical Trauma' - Minor physical injuries such as gunshots, stab wounds and broken bones will cause an immortal pain and also slow them down. However, this is momentary as they will heal completely within seconds. It seems physical trauma can hurt them anywhere on the body (ex-eye gauging, drowning). *'The Devil's Star' - The devil's star can cause a 1000 cuts onto another's body. Former Weaknesses *'The Cure '- If an Immortal takes the cure, they will become human and mortal again. If they were a witch, then they would return to being a witch. However, the cure is gone as both Silas and Amara are dead. * Gilbert Device - Whether it would work on them or not is unknown because it no longer works. *'Last Living Doppelgängers' Blood'- If the doppelgängers' blood is used in the Magic Purification Spell, all of their vampire abilities will be stripped from them little by little and then they will be brought back to the last stage of their mortal life; Death. They will then relive the way they died when they went into transition to the point where they die again. However, it is debatable if the spell would do any true harm to Immortals as it was mentioned by Silas they never died to achieve their immortality in Death and the Maiden. Kai absorbed the Magic Purification Spell and its no longer there. *Hunter's Curse - Silas reveals he beat the hunters curse within minutes. Known Immortals * Silas was a young and extremely powerful warlock who became the world's very first immortal man. According to Professor Atticus Shane, Silas, with the help of his best friend Qetsiyah, who was also an extremely powerful witch, created and cast the first immortality spell on himself. Silas is the progenitor of the Salvatore doppelgänger bloodline and was Amara's true love. However, Silas has ingested the cure for immortality, which is Katherine's blood. As a result, Silas is no longer an immortal being and has reverted back to being a warlock and mortal being that is able to die. ---- * 'Amara '''was a young and beautiful handmaiden for Qetsiyah who was originally a human and who became the world's very first immortal woman. According to Qetsiyah, Amara is the Progenitor of the Petrova doppelgänger bloodline, which spawned Tatia, Katherine and Elena. Amara was also Silas' true love. Amara was reverted back to being a human when she was cured from her immortality. * Freya was turned into a immortal being by her aunt Dahlia. But unlike silas and amara she does not drink blood. Trivia *Julie Plec announced before Season 4 the possibility that other vampires could have lived before the Mikaelsons. *Immortals share many similarities with the character from L.J. Smith's other novel, Night World. The character Maya was once a powerful witch who became the first vampire through an immortality spell also. Not only this, but Maya kept all of her powers as a witch and was still capable of using powerful spells, such as shapeshifting into people or animals, and was regarded as another species of vampire entirely. However, Maya was not wholly immortal. Unlike the Immortals from The Vampire Diaries series, she was still able to be killed. *Silas shares similarities with ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer most powerful villain, The First Evil. They both can take the form of another, and both have manipulating abilities. Being corporeal, Silas could be seen as just a stronger version of The First, being corporal and having the ability to take the form of the dead and even the living, however, the First Evil was unable to die, even, while Silas could die after ingesting the Cure for Immortality. *Vampires can turn humans into their kind. Immortals can not do the same. *The Immortals may be the television counterpart of many species from the novel series including The Old Ones, The Psychic's and the Kitsune. *Silas and Qetsiyah' version of the Immortality Spell was far more powerful than the one Esther used on the Mikaelson Family, giving Silas true immortality and invulnerability. He possesses little to no weaknesses. *Because nature created a Doppelgänger of Silas, Stefan, in order for there to be a version of him that could die, it is possible that Silas' immortality is true to its word and nothing known in the show can destroy him, aside from the cure to strip him of immortality. *True immortals such as Silas and Amara are now extinct, with Silas having taken the other dose of the cure for immortality. This is also another similarity with their novel counterpart: The Old Ones, whom are also extinct. *Immortals are mentally the most powerful creatures on the show. However, Klaus (the Original Hybrid), Alaric (an Enhanced Original), and Mikael (An Original Vampire who feeds on vampire blood), remain the most powerful creatures on the show, in terms of physical strength. *It was confirmed in Death and the Maiden that Immortals are actually not undead as Silas said that he never died and doesn't know what dying feels like, as well as not having as heightened emotions like vampires when telling Stefan he hears that everything is heightened for a vampire. See also Category:Species Category:Supernatural Category:Immortal Category:Witches Category:Vampires